Wednesday, April 10, 2013

'They said they would cut out my baby and kill me': Pregnant mother describes kidnap terror after being held hostage by the men she paid to smuggle her into the U.S.

A pregnant mother was held captive for three days by men she paid to smuggle her across the U.S. border so she could be reunited with her family.

Zoila Figueroa, 28, from El Salvador, was blindfolded, bound and gagged by smugglers known as 'coyotes' who she had paid $1,500 to guide her across the Rio Grande and into Texas.

Her husband Jorge, who lives in Long Island with her American-born son, was made to pay a ransom on $3,990 for her safe return, after the men threatened to kill her.

Zoila Figueroa was trying to cross the Mexico-U.S. border when she was kidnapped by the men she had paid to help her

Mrs Figueroa, who was expecting her third child at the time, told the New York Daily News: ‘They were threatening me with a gun, pointed right to my stomach.

‘They threatened me. They said if my husband didn’t pay ransom they were going to take out my baby. They were going to take out the baby alive and then they were going to kill me.’

Mrs Figueroa had paid the smugglers in March 2012 in an attempt to return to the U.S. to be reunited with her husband and her autistic son in Roosevelt, Long Island.

The men, who called each other El Jefe and Juan, drove her part of the way across a bridge linking Reynosa, Mexico and Hidalgo, Texas before stopping at the bridge and making her climb down a rope into a sugar cane field.

Captors held a gun to the stomach of pregnant Zoila Figueroa and threatened to kill her unless a ransom was paid

Pregnant Mrs Figueroa lost her grip and fell, injuring her back. She was then blindfolded, bound and gagged and held captive in a trailer, while facing death threats from her captors.

She was only released when her husband paid the ransom, and has since suffered with post traumatic stress disorder and agrophobia because of her ordeal.

She now faces deportation from the U.S., unless she can obtain a 'U' visa, which gives undocumented immigrants who are crime victims a chance to become legal residents if they cooperate with police.